IslamicâIranian Identity from the Perspective of Chaos and Complexity Theory

نویسندگان [English]

Sayed Vali Moosavinejad؛ Hamdallah Akvani

چکیده [English]

Introduction
In today's world having multiple identities, national, local, international, religious, occupational, gender, professional, group, tribal, linguistic and so on is a part of the requirements of social life. This paper seeks to investigate the elements formulating Islamic-Iranian identity in the current period. This period has experienced strong progress in all aspects of science, art, and literature, which has in turn brought about new needs and problems. What is clear is the fact that with the advent of the twentieth century and its idiosyncrasies, human beings appear to be bewildered, frustrated, alienated from themselves. Philosophers, intellectuals and ordinary people are confronted with a state of confusion, asking themselves: Who am I? What am I? Why am I here? With an understanding of the complexity of multiple identities, the big question that remains is: What factors affect the Islamic Identity in the present period and how these elements contribute to formulation, prosperity, and decline of this identity? In reply to this question, we put this hypothesis to the test: Islamic Iranian identity under the influence of various interactive elements and numerous actors will be organized through self-organizing and its injuries are treated through self-healing.

Material & Methods
In this research, a comparative method is used in which political and social phenomena are compared to biological, technical and mathematical phenomena. In this paper we use the theory of chaos and complexity. Many scientists believe that twentieth century science will be known for only three theories: relativity, quantum mechanics and chaos theory, which refers to systems that, despite their irregularities, contain a latent regularity which express irregular, unpredictable, complicated and nonlinear behavior, and the system is believed to enjoy a pattern of ultimate discipline within all this chaos.

Discussion of Results & Conclusions
Identity making is a collective phenomenon in a way that everyone can have a role in shaping it. Community identity is like a living and dynamic system that continuously moves toward an endless excellence. We have argued in this paper that components of the Islamic-Iranian identity function not as a pyramid but rather as a unified network:
1- Self-similarity identity: Iranian identity, ranging from religion to politics and from the political parties to economic groups, is presented as a system made up of self-similarity components. Hence, our daily activities are like our identity construction. If Iranian identity structure experiences any crisis and injuries, these damages are also observed in micro and macro scales.
2- Self-Organization identity: Iranian Community regulates itself with no need for external factors. This organization is brought about as a result of the behavior of individual members and will continue to an infinite boundary.
3- The Butterfly Effect and Identity: Based on the theory of chaos and the Butterfly Effect, factors like individual behavior, individual thoughts and have a great impact on the whole structure of our identity.
4- Strange attractions and identity: Basically, identity and self-understanding is something fluid, fragmented, incomplete and changing. Because of its chaotic system, identity has nonlinear and non-repetitive behavior, and the relationships among the elements are not periodic or spot. Rather, due to the immense complexity of the next point of departure, identity behavior is not clear.
5- Iranian Islamic identity self-healing in dealing with the Western civilization: Iranian identity identifies the errors or injuries resulting from globalization and then works them out identifies system malfunctions and initiates corrective policies and enforces them without disturbing the environment. Hence, these corrective measures may involve changes in a particular element or all the elements of identity. The remaining non-defective parts of the identity find their way to go on without the defective parts.
In light of the above arguments, self-healing seems to be an important component of Islamic-Iranian identity. This identity is composed of some components which make up a unified system. Now that some elements of this identity have been challenged by other identities, its unaffected parts will remain dynamic and will go on to self-heal itself like sophisticated systems. In the new era, institutions such as universities and schools are inefficient in identity making, and scatter everyone to form a separated identity.